Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jun 13;21(1):361.
doi: 10.1186/s12877-021-02313-8.

High prevalence of osteoporosis in patients undergoing spine surgery in China

Xiaoyi Mo #  1   2 , Shengli Zhao #  1   2 , Zhenxing Wen  1   2 , Wei Lin  1   2 , Zhipeng Chen  1   2 , Zhiyun Wang  3 , Chen Huang  4 , Jie Qin  5 , Jie Hao  5 , Bailing Chen  6   7
Affiliations

High prevalence of osteoporosis in patients undergoing spine surgery in China

Xiaoyi Mo et al. BMC Geriatr. .

Abstract

Background: With the increase in life expectancy, a large number of patients with osteoporosis (OP) are undergoing spine surgery, which may adversely affect the surgical success rate. The prevalence of OP varies in different regions, and no data are available that represent the prevalence of OP among Chinese patients over 50 years of age who are undergoing spine surgery. It was the first multicenter study to assess OP in these patients. Aiming to obtain comprehensive data, this study combined bone mineral density (BMD) measurements and visual radiography assessment (VRA) to analyze the prevalence of OP in patients aged > 50 years who underwent spine surgery.

Methods: Data from 1,856 patients aged over 50 years undergoing spine surgery who resided in northern, central, and southern China were reviewed between 2018 and 2019. Based on the perioperative BMD and X-ray data, we calculated the prevalence of OP in this special population according to sex, age, and spine degenerative disease.

Results: A total of 1,245 patients (678 females and 567 males) were included in the study. The prevalence of OP diagnosed by BMD was 52.8 % in females and 18.7 % in males. When we combined with BMD and VRA, the prevalence of OP increased from 52.8 to 65.9 % in females and from 18.7 to 40.6 % in males. Although OP was more severe in females than in males, a significant difference in the rate of vertebral fracture (VF) was not observed between females and males with a normal BMD and osteopenia (females vs. males: aged 50-59 years, P = 0.977; 60-69 years, P = 0.302; >70 years, P = 0.172). Similarly, no significant difference in the vertebral fracture rate was observed within different age groups of patients with a normal BMD and osteopenia (females: P = 0.210; males, P = 0.895). The incidence of OP in patients with degenerative scoliosis was higher than that in the remaining patients (females: 63.6 % vs. 42.4 %, P = 0.018; males: 38.9 % vs. 13.8 %, P = 0.004).

Conclusions: A high prevalence of OP was identified in patients aged > 50 years undergoing spine surgery, especially in patients whose primary diagnosis was degenerative scoliosis. BMD and VRA evaluations should be included in the clinical routine for these patients prior to surgery.

Keywords: Chinese; Osteoporosis; Prevalence; Spine surgery; Vertebral fracture.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Xiaoyi Mo, Shengli Zhao, Zhenxing Wen, Wei Lin, Zhipeng Chen, Zhiyun Wang, Chen Huang, Jie Qin, Jie Hao, and Bailing Chen declare that they have no conflict of interest, and the informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The prevalence of osteoporosis among different spine degenerative diseases in the female and the male
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Cui Z, Meng X, Feng H, Zhuang S, Liu Z, Zhu T, Ye K, Xing Y, Sun C, Zhou F, et al. Estimation and projection about the standardized prevalence of osteoporosis in mainland China. Arch Osteoporos. 2019;15(1):2. doi: 10.1007/s11657-019-0670-6. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zeng Q, Li N, Wang Q, Feng J, Sun D, Zhang Q, Huang J, Wen Q, Hu R, Wang L, et al. The Prevalence of Osteoporosis in China, a Nationwide, Multicenter DXA Survey. J Bone Miner Res. 2019;34(10):1789–1797. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.3757. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nazrun AS, Tzar MN, Mokhtar SA, Mohamed IN. A systematic review of the outcomes of osteoporotic fracture patients after hospital discharge: morbidity, subsequent fractures, and mortality. Ther Clin Risk Manag. 2014;10:937–948. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Si L, Winzenberg TM, Jiang Q, Chen M, Palmer AJ. Projection of osteoporosis-related fractures and costs in China: 2010–2050. Osteoporos Int. 2015;26(7):1929–1937. doi: 10.1007/s00198-015-3093-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Schreiber JJ, Hughes AP, Taher F, Girardi FP. An association can be found between hounsfield units and success of lumbar spine fusion. HSS J. 2014;10(1):25–29. doi: 10.1007/s11420-013-9367-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types